Tag: Tricks

Joomla Website SEO Tips and Tricks

Hello,

I’d like to write a SEO tips and tricks article. I’m sure my SEO techniques work well enough but if you can improve on them please let me know. Everyone knows that the real key to good SEO after your site is ‘optimised’ correctly is new content but here are my top tips for Joomla website SEO. I hope you find them useful:

Keyword Research

Use Google to help you find keywords associated with your business. When you type words in the search bar Google suggests other keywords that you could use. Google Keyword Tool is a great resource for researching keywords for your business. It allows you to analyse a word to see how many people search that word on a monthly basis in a regional area.

Personally I thinks it’s better to optimise for keyword phrases rather than individual words, as people are more likely to specify their searches to ‘web designer Melbourne’ rather than just ‘web designers’.

Google prefers to show its customers more localised returns by displaying the local search returns in a map in the right hand column. When you scroll down the map actually goes over the paid advertisements.

Google Places

If you haven’t got a Google Account it’s worth creating one to access all of the tools Google has to offer. For your account page you can create a Google Places listing for your business. You can add business hours, payments terms and the categories you want to be found for and it’s free. Everything counts.

Browser page titles

Each web page should have it’s own unique browser page titles and be no more than 70 characters long. Include keywords in your browser page title. In Joomla the browser page title is either controlled by the Menu or the Title of your page/item. If you are creating a menu item to link to a single page you can control the browser page title by clicking Menus.

Select the link to edit

Click ‘Parameters System and enter the keyword rich page title in the Page Title field.

If you are viewing an article which is in a category the browser page title is taken from the title of the page you are viewing.

Tags

Ensure each page has H1, H2 and p tags. Remember to include keywords in your page titles. When I’m setting up a Joomla site, I prefer to use K2 for creating my pages/items and write my page titles on the page using the H1 tag. There should be only one instance of a H1 tag on the page otherwise it looks like spamming.

Images

Every image should have an ‘alt’ and ‘title’ description so that the search engines know what it is. Ensure your images are optimised before uploading them to your website to ensure faster loading times.

Interlinking

This is easier to do once you have a few pages on your site. When writing articles link keywords in your text to other relevant pages – a bit like Wikipedia. This makes it much easier for people to get around your website with having to go up to the menu and drill down for info. Internal links also rank as well as some external links to your site.

Backlinks

When looking for backlinks sites you really want PR1 sites. These are Page Rank 1 sites that allow you to write on their blogs or create an account where you can add a backlink. Remember the anchor text is the most important part of the backlink as it should be descriptive and include your keywords. The link would probably work better if linking directly to the page the anchor text refers to.

Example: Web Designers Melbourne

Ideally you want your backlink to be placed on an ‘important’ page on a well ranked site. Don’t use backlink farms. Your website will take a serious nosedive if you do. Create the backlinks slowly over time and be patient.

SEO Friendly URL’s in Joomla

When creating your Joomla site it’s best to use the Search Engine Friendly URLS. If you’re server is Apache you will need to change a file name on your server. In the root folder locate htaccess.txt and change it to.htaccess

If a.htaccess already exists I usually delete it and rename the htaccess.txt and use that.

When you have done that login into your Joomla website and go to:

Site / Global Configuration

Ensure the ‘Site’ tab is selected and you will see the SEO settings on the right.

Search Engine Friendly URLs – Yes

Use Apache mod_rewrite – Yes

Add suffix to URLs – No

Press Save.

Now all of your URLs will have easy to read URLs.

Articles / Items

When writing an article (or Item in K2) you need to fill out the ‘Metadata Information’. The description box is the short description people see when searching pages in Google so write it well and concise. The ‘Keywords’ field is self explanatory. Add keywords and phrases separated by commas.

In the Robots field enter: ‘index, follow’

In the Author Field enter: Your name and keyword. It can’t hurt.

Don’t forget the H1, H2 and alt tags when writing your article.

Sitemap

When your site is ready you should create a sitemap.xml file. Google search xml sitemap creator and you’ll find a site to help you create one of these. When it’s complete download the sitemap.xml file to your computer and upload it to your server. Now login to your Google Account and click Webmaster Tools. Add your site to your Webmaster Tools

Submit your sitemap to Google

The best way to submit your site to Google is not through a Submit URL but through your webmaster tools. Click ‘Diagnostics’ in the left column. Then click ‘Fetch as Googlebot’. Here you can add the main him page and any other key pages on your site. Google will find your other pages but it’s good to let them know about your key pages.

Robots

Your site should have a robots.txt file that tells visiting search engine robots which pages they should look at.

This is mine as an example:

User-agent: *

Allow: /sitemap.xml

Allow: /index.php

Allow: /index.html

Allow: /index.htm

User-agent: *

Disallow: /akeeba-backups

Disallow: /cgi-bin

Disallow: /logs

Disallow: /plugins

Disallow: /tmp

Disallow: /xmlrcpc

Disallow: /administrator

Disallow: /cache

Disallow: /editor

Disallow: /help

Disallow: /includes

Disallow: /language

Disallow: /media

Disallow: /modules

Disallow: /templates

Disallow: /installation

Google Analytics Code

Log into your Google Account and go to Google Analytics. Create the right analytical code and put this code in your index.php file just before the tag. This way you can track the search terms people are using when arriving at your site along with lots of other information.

Submission to lots of Search Engines

If you want to submit to lots of search engines a good site to do this is http://www.addme.com. Simply fill out the details and away you go. Some submissions need to be confirmed.

Business Directories

Directories can help with backlinks to your site as well as pushing people to your site from those directories. Do a quick search for local business directories and submit to them today.

Keyword Density

The Addme website also has a great ‘Keyword Density’ checker. Here you can analyse your sites keyword density and adjust your article writing accordingly to what you want to optimise for. Your keywords need to feature for 10% of the length of your article. Ie 10 instances for every 100 words. You just have to be clever in the way you write so it doesn’t sound contrived.

I think that is it. If you have any other top SEO tips please let me know.

Cheers,

Neil.

Small Business SEO Tips and Tricks

Before getting into tips and tricks, here is some background information about SEO for small business owners.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a strategy in web development or design that usually includes post-design promotional activity intended to enhance recognition of a site by search engines. The goal is having your small business website appear on or close to page one in Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the other major search engines. The result, especially being listed #1 on page one, may mean more traffic driven to your website with the ultimate goal of visitors converted to buying customers.

SEO may also mean a person, or Search Engine Optimizer, who is a direct employee or outside contractor with the responsibility of adjusting your small business website programming code, site content, and promotional activities to achieve page one with search engines. Like any profession, the performance level may vary widely from one to another.

Brick and mortar small business owners often launch a new website and expect the site to take over as the front line of marketing their product or service. This can be a mistake. Others just want to enhance their image by showing sophistication with a www domain that presents more content than will fit on a business card or brochure.

The first group wants traffic driven to their site, yet few small business owners truly understand Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, so some fall victim to persons offering SEO services for a fee. For the second group, just being online with a website that never changes meets their expectations, and they realize success depends on direct customer contact and marketing. A third group is similar to this last group, except they expect that just having a website will magically bring instant fortunes.

If you didn’t guess by now, there are no tricks to search engine optimization. Tips for SEO success should be based on proven techniques with long term positive results. Tricks that try to manipulate results by deceptive means, may succeed short term but will eventually fail.

Search engine algorithms for establishing ranking like Google’s PageRank are secret. The best one can do is guess how and why they change by tracking each quarterly update. Most watchers of PageRank, or PR for short, are trying to unravel what Google finds important and then manipulate their strategy to improve their ranking in search results. That could be a mistake. If adjusting strategy means manipulating what some think is important, too often they resort to deceptive means with short term gains.

I’ve written many times that deceptive practices will backfire. You will be punished. If you track PR, or follow the advice of SEO gurus, then you’ve heard the cliche “Content is King”. My position continues to be that the secret to search engine optimization is designing sites for visitors first, and then adding original quality content often to get noticed by people, and search engines.

“Content is King” needs to be changed to “Original Quality Content is King”. Traffic is meaningless if visitors don’t stick around long enough to be converted to paying customers. I believe that the tweaking of algorithms in 2007 and the downward shift in overall PR for so many sites is more than a temporary adjustment. Furthermore, I do not believe that Google is punishing website owners who provide original quality content. Instead, I believe that millions of websites set up and tweaked just to trick search engines are being caught and punished, and the PR scale in 2007 has shifted downward for quality site owners to fill in that void and redefine the PageRank range.

Small business website owners need to understand best practice SEO strategies. Here’s some search engine optimization advice that I published on my website in 2007. First is the main course from my menu to feed search engines that used an analogy comparing search engines to restaurants. Following that list are practices to avoid from that same article on my site.

Positive Search Engine Optimization practices to consider:

1. Keywords in the Page Title

2. Keywords in the H Tags

3. The Age of Your WWW Domain

4. The Size of Your Website

5. Backlinks (inbound links to your pages)

6. Keywords in Text Links

7. High Quality, Original Content

Negative or deceptive SEO practices you should avoid:

1. Do not have affiliate only advertising pages. You need original content.

2. Do not have over optimized pages. It won’t help SEO and may confuse your visitors.

3. Do not have link schemes, inbound or outbound. Deceptive practices will backfire.

4. Do not have identical content hosted on two separate domains (mirror sites).

5. Do not have plagiarized content. It is illegal, and search engines can tell.

6. Do not have foul language as in cursing, or content that is hateful or racist.

In conclusion, continue to evaluate your small business website strategy for SEO. Take advantage of the best practices and avoid the negative or deceptive methods, and you can succeed. The majority of small business entrepreneurs service a local market, so the ranking of your pages compared to the world could mean that very high PageRank is impossible. By following the tips given here, you may have enough to edge out your local competition, and that’s probably all that matters.

Innovative Internet Marketing Solutions: 5 SEO Tricks to Rank Highly On Google

Within the last few decade the web and the incredible amount of online money making chances took the globe as we know it by surprise. You will discover individuals making 6 and even 7 figure earnings because of running their own online businesses.

The world wide web shows a serious possibility to profit if you are ready to work hard and wise. In addition, a lot of buyers now use Google as their number one resource for pre-purchase study and as a result ranking high on the search engines like Google is becoming a bigger factor than ever.

On this edition of my impressive online marketing remedies series I have to discuss along with you 5 tips that have helped me to rank my websites high on the search engines like google.

Content is king: In 1996 Bill Gates posted an article called “Content is King”. In this article Mr. Gates points out precisely how in the future decade the companies who have the best and the most content could be the ones to reign over the online markets.

I’ve come across sites which have amazing design, structure, or owners and they fail to capture the readers attention simply because they lack related good quality articles. While is true which online visitors browse the web to find products and services for their problems, they also love to find out more on how a selected services or products may help them.

Larger low quality traffic normally means much less sales: I know cases of web sites that have over 10,000 visitors per month and still rarely make any money. Why does this happen? As the traffic these types of internet sites are getting is what is called junk traffic or untargeted traffic.

What’s the point of owning a store in the heart of Time’s Square if your target audience never goes there? You’ll definitely get a lot of individuals walking by but your revenue can be really poor.

Review your competitors’ SEO campaigns: You need to remember to always maintain it ethical but business is business and to get an edge you need to understand your competitors’ marketing plans. The fact is that if your competitors are much better and convincing customers that their products and services are wonderful, you won’t get any business even if your merchandise is more preferable.

That is why I would recommend to always evaluate your competitors’ keywords and research their marketing plan. Every marketing plan has flaws and if you can locate those weaknesses in your competitors’ promotional efforts you may be able to have an edge.

Have desired goals and a plan to get to those targets: Goal setting is supremely essential for marketing success. Promoting your business without a clear list of goals is like soaring a plane without a destination. You must know exactly where you would like to go and how you will get there.

Each and every successful online marketer has defined his/her goals and then implemented a well thought marketing plan to allow them to achieve those goals. SEO is not a “one size fits all” solution and what works for other websites may not work for you.

Figure out how to find keywords that can be monetized: There are several keywords that generate higher conversion rates. Many of these keywords are long tail keywords, keywords which are specific to product types (or even names), and keywords that show that the consumer is comparing product.

Bear in mind, search engine optimization doesn’t occur overnight and to reach the first page of Google you need to be consistent, work hard, and above all work smart. I hope you liked my innovative internet marketing solutions series.

To your achievement,

Marcello Ducille

Professional Online Entrepreneur/Senior Forex Trader

How To Get More MLM Prospects Using These 3 Hidden Tricks!

Looking for more MLM prospects?

Well you’ve come to right place at the perfect time because I’m gonna share with you 3 different methods to find the best MLM prospects for your business.

You’re probably in a situation where you’ve ran out of MLM prospects to speak to. Probably you’ve talked to all of your close friends and family members and they’ve all told you NO. Or maybe a couple of them joined and then they quit shortly after.

Whatever the case is, YOU didn’t quit because you’re reading this article now so you’re definitely on the right track. Here are 3 techniques to find good prospects now:

3 Ways to Find Quality MLM Prospects!

1. Your Local Backyard- Let me ask you this. Would you rather deal with wining, skeptical, negative relatives and buddies? Or would you rather speak with motivated, open minded professionals?? I’ll take a wild guess and assume your answer is choice #2. Well the truth is there are plenty of high-quality professional prospects right in your very own backyard. People like realtors, financial planners, sales professionals, small business owners, brokers, hotel managers.

Theses are a handful of your best MLM prospects because they’re already used to working and earning money on their own production or leading a team. They’re just doing what MLMers do in a different setting. Many of the top income earners in the history of Multilevel marketing have those similar backgrounds. These are not people who are afraid of investing $300-700 dollars to sign up in your MLM deal. Go ahead and target them.

How can you do that?

There are lots of ways you can do this. One is you can grab people’s business cards on corkboards at any carwash or gas station, or any supermarket where there’s cork boards. Professionals ALWAYS leave their business cards there because they’re looking for more business & sales. Take those cards and call them. Simply ask them if they’re open to side a project if it didn’t interfere with what they’re currently doing. Also try to find “For Sale” signs on homes when you drive and jot down the names and numbers. A lot of those signs come from professional real estate brokers who are trying to sell that home or real estate and they could very well be suffering in this current economy. They’re very likely to be open and are great MLM prospects for your business.

Or just talk to the professionals you already know in your warm market. Just ask them if they’re open.

2. Attending Events- Some of your best MLM prospects go to events. Events like “millionaire mind”, Robert Kioyasaki events, self improvement growth, etc. A lot of these events are low-costs or even FREE to go to and you will find many people who are like-minded and at least attempting to make things happen in their lives. Get to know them and grab their business cards. DON’T GIVE THEM YOURS! Grab theirs and follow up with them shortly after. You can build that relationship with them and they could be SERIOUS MLM prospects for your business. Maybe not right away but soon in the future.

3. Attraction Marketing Online & Offline- This is TOP SECRET and a number of people usually aren’t taught these methods to generate HIGH QUALITY MLM Prospects! Reason is that it is not duplicable but if you learn this tactic, you’ll have your upline BEGGING YOU for your secrets!!! Plus, utilizing this strategy could help you make money even if NO ONE JOINS YOUR DEAL!!! When you learn to market, you pull people in. People come to YOU, instead of you running after them. That makes business building so much more fun and profitable.

So these are the 3 tips to help you find more quality MLM prospects for your business!

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